venetian literature and publishing 637
patronage of Loredan for many works, this was not the case of her trea-
tise harshly criticizing fathers for forcing their daughters into convents
for the father’s financial gain. Loredan, who himself benefitted person-
ally from the system, defended the patriciate against her attack and was
probably instrumental in preventing it from seeing print.31 the incog-
niti were also associated with various literary works of misogyny, one of
which was among the causes of an inquisition case brought against the
accademia’s printer.32
a second and deeper shock was sent to the incogniti by the 1644 eccle-
siastical trial of Pallavicino for his anticlerical works, which resulted in
his execution. however, the contemporary taste for the curious and even
bizarre was slow to die, and again the incogniti moved to satisfy it with
the Cento novelle amorose [One Hundred Tales of Love; 1651], authored by
various members under Loredan’s direction. by 1657, the Venetian govern-
ment, as during the Wars of the League of Cambrai involved in an expen-
sive war that required papal assistance, allowed the Jesuits to return.
Loredan’s fortunes suffered a disastrous reversal; after his death in 1661,
the incogniti ceased literary production.
by the mid-17th century, romances had definitively shed their risqué
characteristics and provided examples of prudence and virtue. the first-
person tendency of the narration became serious, with the main char-
acters in heroic romances no longer representing the upper classes but
the authors themselves, a development preparing the way for the move
toward the centrality of the common person in the 18th century. however,
romances also incorporated highly emotional elements of the greek tra-
dition such as shipwrecks, pirates, false accusations, unexpected separa-
tions and reunions; the passion of the lovers, if chaste, was high. another
important trend of the latter seicento consisted of the incorporation of
instruction and even critiques of historical rulers into works praising
princes.33
in 1678, elena Cornaro Piscopia became the first woman in the world to
receive a university degree, in mathematics from the university of Padua.
illegitimate at her birth, she was the daughter of a peasant mother and a
31 Letizia Panizza, “introduzione,” in Letizia Panizza, ed. and trans., Arcangela Tarabotti,
Paternal Tyranny (Chicago, 2004), pp. 1–31; Muir, Culture Wars, pp. 102–06.
32 Clizia Carminati, “Loredan, gian Francesco,” in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani,
vol. 65 (2005), pp. 765–66.
33 For various points in this paragraph, see albertazzi, Romanzi e romanzieri, pp. 156–
58, 335–36.